Friday, May 22, 2009

While watching the NBC Nightly Newslast night, I learned that the airport "puffer" machines, the ones that attempt to detect explosives' residue on airline passengers, are being removed from U.S. airports because they cost too much money to maintain, after the federal government spent $36 million for them in 2004. Oh, and it's costing $1 million to take them out, NBC reported. Anchorman Brian Williams said that the machines are so pricey to keep in top operational condition, that some of the machines were never even taken out of their boxes! (Your taxpayer money at work!)

And Williams is ticked off. He commenced his segment on this issue by noting that when President John F. Kennedy set a goal of having an American land on the moon within 10 years, "We made it without breaking a sweat." Now, eight years after 9/11, he noted, airport security hasn't improved much at all.

"It's been eight years and the public's safety is at stake," Williams said, sounding more like an irritated columnist than a news guy. "And to borrow from an old expression, 'If they can put a man on the moon, why can't they come up with a better and safer solution [for airport security]'?"